NOTE: The information on this page is my research to date and is subject to change as I become better informed. I very much welcome any corrections or additional info you might have - my email address is at the bottom of this page - Tim Hill.

It's impossible to say how Catherine and Charles first met. However, Catherine lived in Perry Street close to Albert Oaten, Charles Henry Oaten's uncle in the mid 1870's; later, their parents both moved to Sackville Street, Collingwood. She presumably lived with her parents at at 38 Perry Street in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood on 12 January 1876.12,13

She married Charles Henry Oaten, son of Charles Oaten and Harriet Louisa Roberts, in a Baptist ceremony at Baptist Church on Saturday, 14 March 1885 at the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy. She was 18 and her husband Charles was 19. Apparently this marriage, to a Catholic, scandalised the family and caused Charles' father to dis-inherit his grandchildren..16 Catherine Carroll was also known as Katie.17

Some records suggest that Charles and Catherine initially lived with his recently widowed father and siblings in Collingwood after their marriage but other records suggest they had rented their own place in nearby Gore Street at number 139a. However, it seems likely that the newly weds moved into a house two doors down from his family home for a short while, but then found themselves in Wellington Street, a five minute walk away.18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27 She presumably lived with her parents at Collingwood in 1886.28

In the early 1890's, the family moved a number of times, never staying more than a year or two; to 58 Easey Street Collingwood, then Henderson Street Northcote, then back to Easey Street but this time at number 134 (a small single storey, single-fronted terrace house). By 1896 they finally came to 44 Hilton Street in Clifton Hill - also a single storey, single-fronted terrace house - where their next two children were born.30,22,31,32,33,34